Digital Surge vs CoinSpot 2023

Important: Digital Surge has currently halted withdrawals and deposits due to their exposure to FTX (who collapsed following a liquidity crisis), 

Comparison Table

Features	Digital Surge	CoinSpot
Supported Coins	280+	330+
Trading Fee	Fixed 0.5% buying, and selling fee	0.1% – 1% for instant buy
Market Spread	0.4%	3% – 4%
Deposit Fee	Free crypto deposits	BPAY – 0.9%, cash deposits – 2.5%, zero fees on AUD deposits to an Australian bank account
Withdrawal Fee	1%	Free
Payment Methods	PayID Bank transfer, POLi	Blueshyft, Bank transfers, PayID, POLi, BPAY, OSKO,
Regulatory Status	Fully regulated	Fully regulated
Customer Support	24/7 email customer support, live chat, and phone support	24/7 Help Desk, live chat

Digital Surge

One of the most innovative Australian exchanges, Digital Surge, offers a unique service to its customers apart from the conventional trading options. This Brisbane-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange enables Aussies to pay their utility bills using virtual currencies, alongside other crypto trading options, like exchanging digital currency for the local AUD.

Digital Surge focuses on making crypto trading as straightforward as possible while still meeting the demands of Australian cryptocurrency traders. The exchange provides a wide selection of cryptocurrencies and a user-friendly platform that streamlines the trading processes. 

Pros:

• Very user-friendly platform;
• Enables instant purchases;
• Provides Bitcoin payments of your bills;
• Wide cryptocurrency selection;
• Low market spread;
• Employs local payment services;
• AUSTRAC and ASIC registered exchange.

Cons:

• The exchange doesn’t support credit card/debit card payments;
• AUD is the only supported fiat currency;
• It doesn’t have a staking option;
• Offers its financial services only to Australian residents.

CoinSpot

CoinSpot is one of Australia’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, launched in 2013. This Melbourne-situated exchange’s easy to use trading platform features a range of straightforward trading options suitable for digital asset beginners. 

However, the more experienced traders would not be disappointed with CoinSpot. Namely, the exchange also provides more sophisticated trading tools, such as over-the-counter trading or exchanging non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Pros:

• A secure and beginner-friendly platform;
• Holder of the ISO 27001 data security certificate;
• AUSTRAC-regulated exchange;
• Dedicated support team available 24/7;
• Live chat feature.

Cons:

• AUD is the only supported fiat currency;
• It doesn’t support credit card payments;
• Offers its financial services only to Australian residents.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

The difference between the number of supported cryptocurrencies on these two exchanges is not that striking.

Namely, Digital Surge enables traders to utilise more than 270 cryptocurrencies for their trading strategies, including Bitcoin. Similarly, CoinSpot offers around 330 different cryptocurrencies to choose from, making this exchange a leader in the Australian market regarding the number of available assets. Some of the cryptocurrencies that contribute to CoinSpot’s liquidity include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), and other altcoins. 

Supported Cryptocurrencies Winner: Coinspot

If we had to pick a winner, we’d choose CoinSpot, as traders who use this platform have a slightly broader range of investment choices.

Fees

If you want to make an instant purchase or sell your coins, Digital Surge will charge you 0.5% of the transaction price. This fee can be reduced if your 30-day trading volume surpasses 1,000,000 AUD in value. Also, the exchange levies 1% for crypto withdrawals, but AUD withdrawals are free. 

On top of it, the blockchain of the digital asset you use in the transaction will impose a transaction fee each time you move cryptocurrencies from one wallet to another. As the volume of transactions increases, these costs could also increase as the verification time on the blockchain increases due to the large number of pending data blocks.

On CoinSpot, each order type has its own fee structure. For example, a market order or OTC transaction will cost you a flat 1% per transaction. If you choose to use the instant buy option, the option to sell or swap cryptos, set up the recurring buy function, or place a take profit, stop, or limit order, CoinSpot charges you a low 0.1% fee.

Withdrawals to a bank account in AUD are free on CoinSpot, and so are POLi, PayID, and direct deposits. If you want to fund your account with BPAY, you will have to pay 0.9% per transaction. On the other hand, cash deposits are the most expensive payment option on this platform, with a 2.5% fee for each transaction.

Fees Winner: Coinspot

Both of these exchanges provide free AUD withdrawals, but when it comes to low trading fees, CoinSpot’s 0.1% charge is considerably cheaper than Digital Surge’s 0.5% fee for buying and selling cryptos. 

Furthermore, CoinSpot offers additional free options for transferring your coins to your bank account, encouraging us to give CoinSpot an advantage in this category.

Market Spread

Digital Surge provides some of the lowest spreads among Australian exchanges. You can locate the lowest market spreads across a wide selection of cryptocurrencies by using the Buy and Sell option on Digital Surge. The difference between the purchase and sell prices might reach up to 0.4 %, which is a relatively tight spread.

Spreads might range from 3% to 4% on CoinSpot, depending on the digital asset included in the trade. This rather broad CoinSpot spread is not favourable for crypto traders who make large crypto investments.

Spread Winner: Digital Surge

Following this comparison, it should go without saying that Digital Surge offers a more advantageous spread for the market participants who prefer trading crypto through this exchange.

Customer Support

You can contact Digital Surge’s customer support team 24/7 by email, on some of their social media channels, or via live chat. The exchange provides a support ticket form that includes the field in which you can categorise your problem so they can find the right professional to address the issue. The support agents are crypto specialists who will readily share their expertise and help you solve your problem during local working hours.

CoinSpot, like Digital Surge, provides excellent customer service to its users, which is available 24/7 through email or from 9 am to 8 pm on weekdays and 9 am to 5 pm on weekends through the Help Center. If you want quick expert assistance, there is also a live chat function. You can even request a transcript of the chat as a future reference. 

Support Winner

Both of these exchanges are regarded by their users as trustworthy and constantly ready to assist their consumers. As evidence, Digital Surge and CoinSpot provide a live chat feature, demonstrating their commitment to being closer to their clients and meeting their needs. For this reason, we’re calling it a draw.

Mobile App 

Users of Digital Surge’s mobile app can perform nearly all of the functions available on the desktop version. In addition to managing your portfolio, you can investigate other cryptocurrencies, place buying or selling orders, etc. The Digital Surge mobile app is available for iOS and Android-supported devices.

It is also possible to trade on the go with CoinSpot’s mobile app. Using this software, you can purchase, sell, trade cryptocurrencies, transfer crypto assets from your digital wallet, monitor market fluctuations, examine coin statistics, or keep track of your balance.

Mobile App Winner

Both the Digital Surge and the CoinSpot apps allow traders to accomplish practically everything they could do on the desktop versions of the exchanges. Also, both applications have a simple user interface and are easy to navigate. As a result, this category ends in a tie.

Deposit Methods

Digital Surge enables deposits through PaidID bank transfers and POLi, a third-party payment service. PayID allows you to deposit funds into your account in under 60 seconds and is completely free.

Australia Post offers POLi as a payment mechanism on Digital Surge. Use this way to instantly connect to your online banking service and make a transaction. However, be aware that POLi Pay imposes a daily limit of 8,000 AUD, and there is a small fee (ranging from 2 – 3.3 AUD) for each transaction you make.

By contrast, CoinSpot enables payments through a wider variety of payment options, including OSKO direct AUD deposits, PayID and POLi. You can also fund your CoinSpot trading account with cryptos. All of these payment methods are free of charge.

You can also use BPAY or make a cash deposit. However, these payment methods will entail an added cost of 0.9% and 2.5%, respectively. 

Deposit Winner: Coinspot

Given CoinSpot’s more extensive selection of free-of-charge deposit options, we can easily identify CoinSpot as the superior exchange in terms of payment methods. 

Security

Digital Surge has several security measures since it is AUSTRAC-regulated and is thus required to comply rigorously with KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) procedures. These user identification mechanisms require a range of documents and a photo ID in some cases, a two-factor authentication protocol for increased account security, and several encryption methods.

In addition, all funds belonging to Digital Surge clients are held in both hot and cold storage to avoid any potential security breaches.

CoinSpot is the first Australian exchange to receive the ISO 27001 certification for data security. This accreditation signifies that the platform’s confidential data is susceptible to the AML / KYC  requirements.

Furthermore, the various foundational security mechanisms incorporated into the platform’s exchange architecture safeguards CoinSpot’s clients’ trading profiles and investments from cyber attacks, hacks, or unauthorised access. 

Security Winner: Coinspot

Both of these exchanges appear to have robust security features built into the platform’s design. However, we must not neglect that CoinSpot has been awarded the highest certificate for information security management systems, implying that this exchange offers its consumers the best-in-class data security services.

Final Verdict

Both CoinSpot and Digital Surge are excellent trading platforms that seek to provide the ultimate trading experience for their clients. As much as these two Australian exchanges are similar to each other, they do, however, differ in several key aspects. 

According to our analysis, CoinSpot fares a bit better than Digital Surge because it offers more trading possibilities for crypto investors, a more extensive selection of coins, a wider variety of payment methods, and lower trading fees.